


6 Months and 1550 Miles

by DryCereal



Series: "Week of Fics" Challenge, July 2018 [5]
Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Accidents, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Cuddles, Dan has long arms, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Fluffy Ending, Gamingmas 2017 (Phandom), M/M, MORE emotional Hurt/Comfort, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Minor Injuries, No selfies though, Sleepy Dan Howell, THAT Moscow M&G, Two clumsy tol beans, Worried Phil, tiny bit of blood, worried Dan
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-19
Updated: 2018-08-21
Packaged: 2019-06-13 01:30:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,157
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15353238
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DryCereal/pseuds/DryCereal
Summary: Similar events feel very different, depending on whether you can edit stuff out before the audience sees it...





	1. London, December 2017.

“-JOB SIMULATORRRRR” he finishes, exaggerating the end of the words somewhat dramatically, before Phil quips something about “being on the naughty step down here”  
  
He rolls with it, turning at least partway towards him, hoping he’s brandishing the controller in the right direction as he plays along, telling Phil and their audience “You’ve been very bad, you’re getting nothing but coal next week!”  
  
He’s already pressed START and figures he may as well make something of the warning displayed inside the headset, so he reads it out for their audience’s benefit, swinging his arms as he does so to demonstrate the point.

“Are you clear of things you might bump into?”  
  
He can’t hear Phil clearly, but he thinks he’s jokingly drawing attention to the fact he’s sitting within reach, but Dan’s aware of his general location, just behind him to his right, and he might swing his arms around to get a reaction, just to be a bit dramatic, but it’ll be funny - Phil won’t let anything happen -  
  
“Please don’t punch me in the- “  
  
  
  
“ALL CLEAR!”

 

**_SMACK_ **

 

“OHH! **FUCK**!!”

 

It takes a moment for what’s just happened to register. He stands frozen, arms and elbows drawn in tight, before yanking the headset up from over his eyes, to see Phil hunched over turned away from him, both hands covering his mouth and jaw.  
  
“Are you okay?”  
  
Silence.  
  
“Phil… Phil, look at me please” This isn’t funny. The camera is still recording, but this isn’t going to be uploaded.  
  
His hand stings where he’s just hit Phil, but he’s certain being backhanded square in the face will have hurt a damn sight more, especially if he also caught him with the controller too.

He drops to his knees in front of Phil, and gently tries to pry his hands away from his face, in order to see what he’s done, what he’s caused to happen in all his stupid put-on exuberance. He’s expecting bruising, maybe some blood, but he’s just hoping there’s no missing teeth, because it’s late at night and he doesn’t know where to find an emergency dentist and-  
  
Phil turns towards him and makes eye contact, after what seems like an eternity to Dan, caught in a spiral of worry and self-recrimination. There’s tears in his eyes, but he shies away from Dan when he goes to wipe them away, instead blinking them away as he lifts his head.  
Slowly, oh-so slowly, he lowers one hand, then the other, allowing Dan to see, finally. And it’s nowhere near as bad as he’d feared, especially as Phil quips, albeit shakily “So, what’s the damage? Do I have an excuse for all that plastic surgery to turn me into- “  
  
“Shush a minute” Dan interrupts, noticing a small smear of blood on Phil’s lip, leaning in close to try and see where it’s coming from before directing Phil: “open your mouth for a sec?”  
  
Phil obliges, wincing slightly as Dan carefully rolls his top lip away from his teeth just enough to see a tiny cut on the inside of his lip. It’s already stopped bleeding, probably thanks to the pressure Phil’s hands on his face put on it, and it seems to be the only damage, but he keeps checking, keeps examining Phil’s face closely until Phil seizes his hands, removing them from his face and trapping them together between his own gently.  
  
“Dan, it’s ok. I’m fine. I’m alright, _really_.”

He inhales shakily, avoiding making eye contact. Despite the words, he still expects Phil to be angry, he’d deserve it if he was, after what he’s just done, he could so easily have really hurt Phil, what would he have done then, and-  
  
“Hey. Dan. Stop. Look at me.”  
  
Without him realising, suddenly their positions are reversed and it’s his own face being cradled in Phil’s hands, and a couple of previously unnoticed tears being wiped gently from his cheeks. The words, and the gentle tone of that voice he knows so well, along with the careful physical contact abruptly shut down the negative thought spiral he’d trapped himself in, and frees him enough to follow the simple command Phil’s given him. He opens his eyes, barely having known up until that point that he’d shut them, and makes eye contact.  
  
“There you are. Love, stop worrying, Please. I’m fine, you’re fine, it was just an accident, you couldn’t see me- “  
  
“Phil. I’m sorry. I-I- “  
  
“Shhh love, I know. You didn’t mean it. It’s ok. Deep breaths now, come on.”  
  
He’s so relieved that Phil really isn’t mad, and seems instead to be worried about _him_ all of a sudden that he can’t help but barrel into Phil’s midsection, worming his arms tightly between Phil and the back of his chair, eliciting a surprised “oof!” from his partner at the impact, before he feels his arms come up and wrap around him securely.  
  
Suddenly everything really _is_ ok. He hadn’t realised how upset he’d gotten, how worried, until he starts to relax, feeling the tension gradually ebb from his body, and his mind quieten.  
  
“’m sorry I’m an idiot” he mutters into Phil’s shirt. He’s not sure if he’d be able to hear it, but he feels the need to say it anyway. Phil chuckles softly, before shifting, and moving one hand upwards, stroking up his back, tickling the back of his neck just a little before starting to gently play with Dan’s hair, picking a single curl at random, and pulling slightly, before letting it ping back towards his scalp.  
  
“You know we can film this another day if you want?” he suggests, quietly, obviously not wanting to disturb the moment but it serves to remind them that the camera is still presumably recording, has been the entire time, so if they do want to keep recording, they need to get on with it at some point.  
  
Dan releases his grip on the back of Phil’s shirt, and sits back on his heels, looking up at Phil with a bashful smile, taking the opportunity as Phil looks down at him to-  
  
“Stop staring at me like my face is in danger of falling off you spoon! I’m **_fine_**.”  
  
 They both burst out laughing, and it takes a while for Dan to ask if Phil wants to keep what they had recorded, or if he wants to start fresh.  
  
“I don’t know. It was pretty funny, to be honest, and it’s nice to have not been the clumsy one for once. What do you think?” he asks in return, frowning slightly, clearly unsure if Dan is comfortable with sharing even part of what’s just happened. And to be honest, he is mulling it over carefully, before replying as he gets to his feet and stretching:  
  
“OK, let’s carry on with me apologising. We can always cut it out and re-film the intro if it’s- if we- ”  
  
“Sounds good” Phil cuts him off, smiling comfortingly up at him.  
  
And it is good when the video is finally finished. With an added slow-mo of the impact that still makes them both flinch whenever they see it, even after editing the video carefully, it’s easy to disguise what would be a blatant jump-cut, followed by their slightly shaky, slightly over-emphasised interactions as they restart filming.  
  
It's okay.


	2. Moscow, June 2018.

Dan stretches his arms up above his head, relaxing on the freshly made hotel bed he’s been lying across ever since they got back to the hotel. It’s late, and they’re tired, but it’s been a good few days, busy, but everything thus far has gone better and more straightforwardly than they’d perhaps expected.  
  
Phil had headed straight for the shower once they’d ordered room service dinner, promising to be quick enough that Dan can have a quick rinse at the least before the food arrives. Dan suspects, based on years of experience however, that he won’t actually get to shower until he goes back to his own hotel room later. Alone, because they promised to adhere to all the advice they’d had drummed into them on the run-up to this section of the tour. All of it. It feels especially jarring, given the reactions of their fans who came to the shows, and the Meet and Greet sessions, so whilst they felt more relaxed during tonight’s performance, they’re still on full “best platonic behaviour” mode, and he’s 99% certain just his presence here in Phil’s room would give some members of their team an aneurysm if they knew.  
  
Also odd is the fact they handed over all their devices before flying into the country, as advised, and since then have been using old handsets they packed specifically for these few days, carefully reset to factory settings with burner SIM cards and iCloud accounts, and virtually no apps installed.  
  
They’ve also avoided signing into any of their online accounts, so have effectively shut themselves off completely from social media, something they’ve literally _never_ done. Not completely. It’s been weird, but they’ve spoken about how they can both see the appeal, if they weren’t so reliant on it for their career.  
  
It’s for this reason that instead of just checking his mentions, he is reduced to searching a few different terms in order to gauge their audiences’ (both in person and online) reaction to tonight’s show, along with their continued absence online, but what he finds initially confuses, then horrifies him.  
  
Not least because it’s something he doesn’t even remember having happened.  
  
Yet there it is, full video evidence with muffled audio. In silent gifs that play over and over as he scrolls past. All over Twitter and Tumblr both, complete with joking captions and comments, crowding out any reviews, spoilers or comments about the actual show.  
  
_And he doesn’t remember it._  
  
But what if Phil _does_? What if Phil was expecting an apology? What if he was expecting them to talk about it, if not right there and then, but maybe in their dressing room after the meetup but before the show, during the interval, or afterwards. Any point up until when he shut the door to the bathroom behind him.  
  
What if Phil’s angry? And he hasn’t noticed that either. Not that it’d be the first time Phil had kept quiet, let it fester under the surface with Dan oblivious, gotten and stayed angry about that too, then suddenly exploded, leaving Dan temporarily blindsided, then feeling like a complete shit?  
  
He can’t let that happen. Not now, not here, and not during the tour. They can’t get away with doing this show if they’re not on good terms, it’s not scripted enough, and the last thing they’d need is if it were obvious to their audience that something was wrong between them.  
  
This is bad enough, they don’t need that as well.  
  
He needs to sort this, have it out with Phil now, but he’s in the shower, and his mood won’t be improved if Dan interrupts or drags him out of there now, but the food’s on its way, it’ll be arriving soon and he doesn’t want to sit eating in stony silence if Phil really is mad, but what if-  
  
“Dan..? You okay love?”  
  
His thoughts come to a shuddering stop, and he freezes, not that he was moving anyway, instead lying curled in on himself, caught, as if he was being attacked by some external force, not from within his own mind.  
  
“Hey...” Phil says quietly, sitting down on the edge next to his feet, shrugging off the towel draped round his shoulders and reaching out to lay a hand gently on Dan’s thigh; “What’s wrong? What’s happened?” 

Dan can feel himself cringing as the silence stretches, hating himself for not having the nerve to sit up and speak to Phil, instead hiding himself away and no doubt worrying his boyfriend, but he just can’t. Which makes him feel worse, Phil will have yet another reason to be mad, as if there weren’t enough already, but what if he decides he’s too much trouble, what if he decides enough is en- 

“Dan. What’s got you upset love? _Please_ tell me. I-I don’t know what’s wrong but- “

It’s the worry clearly audible in his voice that frees some of Dan’s muscles up enough so he can nudge the phone, lying face-down on the bed. It’s less the vicious kick that he wants to give it, send it smashing into the wall or onto the floor, but he manages to nudge it with his knee, pushing it away from him slightly - enough for Phil to take the hint and snatch it up with shaking hands.

There’s a long pause, whilst Phil unlocks the phone, then scrolls through what Dan had last been looking at. Dan’s curiosity gets the better of him quickly, and he sneaks a glance up at Phil, still concentrating, absorbed on the phone screen. Or so the thinks, right up until Phil looks down at him, making eye contact that Dan immediately shies away from.

“Oh no you don’t...” Phil starts, standing up briefly, just enough to flop down back onto the bed on the other side of Dan, before rolling onto his side so he can face him on his level - if only he wasn’t still avoiding eye contact, or even looking at him, Phil’s choice of words having done nothing to soothe his fears that they’re heading towards a massive row.  
  
“Hi.” Phil begins, reaching over and poking Dan gently right between the eyebrows. “I hope you’re listening to me, cos I’m about to start listing in reverse order every stupid, daft, clumsy, utterly unimportant thing I’ve done that you’ve ignored or forgiven me for starting with the fact I just dropped the conditioner in the shower and wasted half the bottle…”  
  
Dan frowns, listening as Phil continues; “…fairly sure I left my tour hoodie at the venue yesterday, so that makes _five_ …” This… It doesn’t make sense. He **hit** Phil _in the face_. He could have **really** hurt him, because he wasn’t being _careful_ and- __  
  
“Oi.” Phil interrupts, and it’s enough to derail his thoughts, stop them hurtling again. “You’re _supposed_ to be listening to how terrible _I_ am…”  
  
“‘m sorr- “  
  
“ ** _Nope_**.” Phil immediately interrupts. “Nothing to be sorry for. We’re two lanky uncoordinated giants stuck in a tiny screened-off bit of a crowded room with loads of other people and I know however annoying I might get on a daily basis that you’d never actually try and hit me. So, no apologies, and no beating yourself up about it either. Else I will get annoyed, hear me?”  
  
“But-“ He tries to argue the point, because-  
  
“Yeah, I know, they know. And we know they know. But the only one taking this seriously that we need to take seriously is **you**.”  
  
“Phil. They- “  
  
“Will have found something else to keyboard smash over by tomorrow.” he responds firmly, before his voice softens as he continues. “Dan… I’m _not_ angry. I promise. And they’re… well, most of them are joking. I mean - it does look quite funny. Did you see my face when it happened?” He can’t help but chuckle quietly as he finishes, smiling at his boyfriend, reaching across to take his hand when he sees the aborted movement it makes. He’s relieved to see a smile, however tentative, appear on Dan’s face almost immediately.  
  
It’s at that point that there’s a knock at the door. Dan’s up in a flash, Phil barely has time to sit up before he’s yanking the door open. It takes him a little longer to reappear from the door of the room, but Phil assumes that’s due to the fact he’s carrying a large tray with their food balanced carefully when he does return.  
  
They sit next to each other on the bed, leaning against the headboard as they eat.  Phil thinks nothing of the silence that descends on the room, until he looks up when he’s about three-quarters done with his food, no longer ravenous, to find Dan has barely eaten anything, and instead of eating, he’s frowning down at his plate as he swirls his fork through the food. Phil places his plate back on the tray, and gently takes Dan’s out of his hands. When he turns back to his boyfriend, he finds him frowning at him, instead. That doesn’t change, even when Phil reaches out, gets his arms round his shoulders, and pulls Dan down with him as he shuffles down the bed.  
  
He’s lying somewhat comfortably, with Dan’s head resting on his shoulder, but he’s almost painfully aware of how stiffly Dan is lying, immobile, obviously still replaying the events of earlier in the day and punishing himself over it. This won’t do.  
  
He squeezes Dan in his arms tightly, and presses a line of kisses in his hair, to his temple, across his forehead and finishes on the end of his nose, huffing amusedly at Dan, frowning and cross-eyed as he watches him pull away to rest his head back on the pillow. Seizing his chance, he mouths “I. Love. You.” and as Dan raises his own head to press a kiss against his jaw, he smiles contentedly.  
  
“I love you too” he replies, lying back down, immediately curling into Phil’s body and tucking his face into his neck as he gets comfortable, before he finally, relaxes. Phil feels like cheering, like it’s a victory, but he’ll settle for the quiet moment and enjoy the intimacy whilst they can have it, as Dan’s arm creeps across his chest and gently tugs them that bit closer together.  
  
“I wanna stay…” he whispers, so quiet Phil feels it almost more than he hears it. He doesn’t blame him. He wants Dan to stay too – for them to spend the night curled together like this, rather than them separate in different rooms, and for Dan to be alone with his thoughts tonight.  
  
“So stay.” He replies, just as quietly, refusing to loosen his hold on Dan when he goes to move, to force himself to sit up; “Dan… just… please. Just a bit longer.”  
  
“Phil… I’m going to fall asleep and then-”  
  
“Shhh. Just a bit longer love.” He’s got a plan. And he’s determined to make it work.  
  
Sure enough, after another quiet period, Dan makes another two failed attempts to get up and leave, before he relaxes fully and Phil waits until his breathing evens out completely before he slowly and carefully slides out from under Dan’s body, then gently wraps the duvet around him, smiling as Dan immediately rolls himself over before settling. He retrieves Dan’s phone, plugging it into the charger and putting his own in his pocket, and finally brushes a kiss on Dan’s forehead before grabbing a change of clothes, his hotel room key and his trainers, before making for the door, closing it gently behind him.  
  
He’ll bring down a change of clothes for Dan in the morning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, I know, I know. I shouldn't write anything other than one-shots..!
> 
> Hope you don't hate me too much for the wait. just wasn't in the mood to write (much, at all, tbh) let alone write not-happy.
> 
> I have been working on my Tour Fest 2 fic though!! :O)
> 
> Hassle me on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/DryCerealThief) or [Tumblr](https://drycerealthief.tumblr.com) in the meantime.
> 
> Hope you liked it! Let me know one way or t'other!

**Author's Note:**

> First not-a-oneshot, fifth fic in five days! WHAT IS HAPPENING RIGHT NOW?!! 
> 
> Chapter two will be up either tomorrow or Saturday, depending on what I feel like writing from the list of ideas/part-done fics I have going... i'll try not to keep you waiting long, promise! :D
> 
> Hassle me on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/DryCerealThief) or [Tumblr](https://drycerealthief.tumblr.com) in the meantime.
> 
> Hope you liked it! Let me know one way or t'other! <3


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